Aristocracy, antiquity, and history

A. A. M. Kinneging

This brilliant critique of the literature on modernity challenges the conventional approach in two fundamental ways. First, it argues that the lineage of the modern is much less ancient and glorious than is usually suggested. Modernity is an upstart rather than the scion of an old and celebrated line. It fabricated a grand genealogy for itself, whereas in fact its ancestry lies buried in the dirt. This leads to the second argument, namely, that modernity is much less securely rooted than is commonly thought. The ancient is deeply embedded in our souls. Hence, the demise of the ancient is a matter of rhetoric rather than reality. It was driven underground rather than extinguished. As a consequence, our self-conception as moderns has estranged us from ourselves.